Science to return to space station

A successful third spacewalk to repair the cooling system on the International Space Station should clear the way for its crew to resume scientific research, NASA says.

On 31 July, an electrical short knocked out one of two pumps used to push liquid ammonia through the station's cooling system.

The failure forced parts of the station to be powered down to prevent the outpost from overheating, and science took a big hit. According to CBS News,

experiments in the Japanese Kibo module and the European Space Agency's Columbus module had to be powered down, along with most of the science racks in the U.S. segment of the station. And with only one coolant loop in operation, the space station had no redundancy in a critical system.

Two spacewalks were planned to replace the refrigerator-sized pump, but it took two just to remove the broken pump. A third spacewalk on Monday installed a spare pump that had been delivered to the station in 2006, Space.com reports.

The station should return to normal operations by Thursday, which will allow astronauts to resume their experiments, says Kirk Shireman, deputy manager of the space station program at the Johnson Space Center, according to CBS News:

"The best thing about this is this will allow us to recover and to focus on research, which is the primary purpose of the International Space Station," Shireman said of the repair work. "We plan to accomplish up to 63 hours of research next week. So really looking forward here to getting back to normal and doing the kinds of work the space station was meant to accomplish."

Good to hear all is well again in humanity's farthest outpost. It's always good to remind people that the ISS is up there doing some great science!

Deborah Hart
on August 17, 2010 9:21 AM

So glad things are getting back to normal on the ISS! When things go wrong "up there", and thank God it doesn't happen very often, I really get nervous for the crew! Now I can breath a sigh of relief! KUDOS to everyone on the station (and ground control too) for keeping their cool during such a testy time!

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